Page 32 of Too Lethal to Love

“You have your secrets; I have mine.”

“You’ve been watching me?”

With hands shaking from fury and not fear for once, she yanked her phone from her pocket and dialed Nic.

He answered on the first ring. “Everything okay?”

“No. Can you come to my parents’ house? Kane needs to leave.”

Kane cursed his carelessness as he reached to snatch the phone from Beth. She thrust her elbow up. It smacked into the underside of his arm with surprising force as she twisted to evade his countermove.

Breath heaving, curls in her face, she glared at him as she brought the device to her ear. “Listen to me, Nic. You need to relieve your buddy now before I kick him in the balls.”

“Stay put,” Kane yelled. “We’re fine.”

He could hear Nic’s laughter across the few feet separating him and the pissed-off sugarplum with the surprising moves. She wasn’t kidding when she said she had self-defense training. The sharp blow to his arm had taken him by surprise. So had her speed and agility. He held out his hand. “Give me the phone, please.”

Nic’s chuckle carried through the air again. “Give it to him, Beth, so I can tell him to stop being a dick and be nice to you.”

She handed the phone over with a huff.

Kane brought it to his ear. “We’re good. I’ll callyou later.”

“Not so fast,mi hermano.Haven’t you learned anything from me about how to treat a lady?”

Kane hung up on his brother and shoved the phone in his pocket.

Beth pointed to the door. “Get out.”

“Not a chance, sugarplum.” Even if he were to leave, which he wouldn’t, he couldn’t until Nic arrived. After the liquor store incident, he wasn’t leaving her unprotected.

“Stop calling me that silly nickname.”

He shook his head. “Not a chance of that either.”

“Fine, then I’ll call you stalker-hole.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Get it, stalker and asshole.”

“I wasn’t stalking you.” Well, he wouldn’t call it stalking. More like protecting, but he didn’t think she’d see the difference right now.

She stepped toward him and lifted her chin. “It was you who upgraded my security system, wasn’t it? I didn’t win a damn thing. You arranged it so you could have access to my account. My cameras.”

He didn’t flinch at her accusations. “Yes.”

Another step brought them toe to toe. “Have you been watching me?”

He nodded, mesmerized by the fire blazing in her eyes. “But I’ve only been monitoring the exterior cameras to make sure nobody breaches the property.”

Her brow furrowed as she cocked her head. “Why?”

“Because Scarlett’s home was broken into. You got caught in the middle, which, by association, put you in danger. And you were so afraid that night. You put on a good show of being tough when we were at the hospital, but I saw through it. And when you fell asleep and screamed for help, in the car on the way home, and then in your bedroom when I watched you sleep, I knew someone had hurt you. I couldn’t allow that to happen again.”

Long moments went by. She didn’t say anything, just stared at him with those beautiful eyes, the gold rims burning like the edges of a bonfire. “You watched me sleep?”

“I’ve stayed up all night with sick horses so they wouldn’t be alone and scared. Of course I didn’t leave you.” He’d never leave someone he cared about crying alone in a bedroom, or anyplace else, ever again.

Something warm brimmed in her gaze that wasn’t anger. She crossed her arms over her chest as if to snuff it out. He chanced a step toward her.

She backed up. “Was Scarlett in on this?”

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